Wyeth CEO’s Exit Pay; Rx Info Freed & Chuck Norris’s Tears

The Health Blog looked for stories you might have missed over the weekend. Here’s our short list.

Wyeth CEO Robert Essner will keep his $1.7 million salary after stepping down when the ball drops in Times Square, according to a letter the company filed with the SEC. The letter begins with a friendly “Dear Bob” and goes on to explain that Essner will continue to serve as chairman of the board through the end of next year — and will keep the same salary and bonus structure he has now, as chairman and CEO.

The prescribing habits of Maine’s doctors will still be available to data mining companies next year, the AP reports. A federal district court judge ruled that a state law blocking access to the data violated the First Amendment, handing a victory to Verispan, IMS Health and Wolters Kluwer Health. The ruling cited a similar case decided earlier this year in New Hampshire, which also went in favor of the data mining companies, which sell prescription info to drug companies. Maine is likely to join New Hampshire’s appeal, and Vermont, which is defending a similar law, could also get in on the action, reports the Bangor Daily News.

Chuck Norris’s tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried, goes the old Internet joke. A universe of fan sites describe Norris’s prowess with one-liners like this one, and Norris mostly leaves them alone. You know, like natural selection: “There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.” Well, on Friday he sued over a book, The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World’s Greatest Human. The suit alleges that the publisher (Penguin) and the author “have misappropriated and exploited Mr. Norris’s name and likeness without authorization for their own commercial profit,” Reuters reports.